Panthers rookie Evgeny Dadonov went to Raleigh only to be picked for the breakaway challenge. I thought he should’ve been in the skills challenge which is a combo event with all the offensive skills or even the fastest skating event.

Dadonov totally blew first two attempts to pull off spinning move and backhander on breakaway. His third attempt was better, but came through on his fourth try as he did a pretty snazzy move, dribbling with the puck spinning and flicking a behind-the-back, tween-the-legs shot past Carey Price!

Are you guys going to watch this? Versus has it live but the NHL station is replaying it all night starting at 9 pm. …

How about the game itself tomorrow? Interested in the new format?

Too bad Panthers got rid of Michael Grabner. He not only won the fastest skater competition but he’s also got 15 goals, which would lead the Panthers. However, I was a witness to his preseason. It was horrible. He showed nothing in the preseason.

Comments (47 Comments)

Just watched Grabner win the fastest skater event and it reminded me how often this team gets things wrong when it comes to evaluating young players. Why dump this kid instead of dumping some of the veteran deadwood? if they pulled the plug on Reinprecht right away they might have been able to keep this kid instead. It also reminds me how DeBoer seems to have issues with certain types of players. And in case anyone didn’t notice, his 15 goals this season is more than any Panther has scored. I wonder how good Repik will do when he gets a real chance to play in the NHL for another team.

I hear you Wait-a-Minute. It made me sick to watch. Grabner was traded, along with Steve Bernier and the Canucks first round choice in the draft, the twenty-fifth selection (used to select Quinton Howden) to the Florida Panthers for Keith Ballard and Victor Oreskovich. He was then claimed by the Islanders after Florida placed him on waivers trying to assign him to their AHL club. He has more goals than anyone on Florida’s roster this season and he doesn’t even play the top line.

Once again, incompetence at its finest as another quality player slips through Florida’s fingers FOR NOTHING IN RETURN. Stupid fans down here don’t know this because apparently igonorance is bliss. This guy would make Booth look like a snail and the Islanders got him for a song. Meanwhile we’re talking Repik this and Frolik that while this guy is doing circles around them. The Islanders must chuckling at how stupid the management is down here.

Not to mention, it’s difficult to get excited about a player we won’t see for a few years. Since he is going to Princeton, he probably will be smart enough to figure out that this is not the franchise he wants to lose to much time with. I don’t blame him.

Perhaps Grabner didn’t impress because they never put him in a position to impress (or succeed). Kind of like what they’ve done to Repik time and time again – pairing him on lines with guys who are not skilled players and don’t compliment him and giving him crap minutes in games. I’ve said before that one of my pet peeves with DeBoer is the way he hands out minutes.

This shows you how incompetent this club really is. They acquire a player and determine his viability based on two weeks worth of performance in training camp. Never mind the fact that he has an entire player history that can help to determine what he is actually capable of doing. Then to add insult to injury, Peta “Da-Bore” gives them limited ice time and puts him on lines even top scorers would have a tough time making hay with. After that, they determine that the player has to be sent back down to the farm only to frustrate the player and also squander what they just gave up to acquire him. The stupidity is mind-boggling and it happens over and over again. This one is purely Tallon’s fault and cannot be blamed on the previous simpletons like Sexton and Martin who made mistakes like this on a regular basis. Is it something in the water down here that makes hockey GM’s stupid?

“Too bad Panthers got rid of Michael Grabner. He not only won the fastest skater competition but he’s also got 15 goals, which would lead the Panthers”
“. However, I was a witness to his preseason. It was horrible. He showed nothing in the preseason”
Harvey he showed enought to another team more trained than you and the morons in management.

The list of dumb trades and dumping of good players by the Panthers are laughable to all, especially the NHL..Look how many are voted for and won to play in these playoffs..
The one constant failure is YUP, Michael Yormark the big cheese him self.

I still get hearburn everytume I see Dan Boyle. In 2002, he was traded by Florida to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a fifth round draft choice???? And then the guy helps them win a Stanley Cup two years later???? If there is an award for the most bad trades in NHL history, Florida has got to be in the top three at least. Even Mad Mike Milbury doesn’t have a track record this bad. Florida literally let one of the finest goaltenders in the league leave this franchise for almost nothing in return. Luongo already lead Canada to Olympic Gold and there is a good chance the Canucks will win the Cup this year with him between the pipes. Meanwhile, what has Florida done except look for new ways to fleece the dwindling fan base????

Red saying, ” Luongo already lead Canada to Olympic Gold,” is a little over the top. Every Canadian knows Canada won in spite of Luongo. He let in the softest goals. If Iginla hadn’t got to the puck to Crosby for the game winner US would have probably come back and scored on Luongo. He has been playing really weak until recently. Now he is playing great but in the Olympics he was very shakey.

Struggles or not, in the recently conducted poll by the CBC, http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/allstar/poll/, NHL players said that Luongo was the hardest goalie to score on – 17% chose him, 16% said Miller and 15% said Thomas.

Wait-a-Minute that is true. He is playing great this season but can you or anyone really say Panthers would be better off today minus Allen, Matthias, Vokoun with Luongo and the player Panthers would have taken with the pick they gave up for Vokoun? Would Luongo have resigned with Florida like he did with Vancouver? Would the team or the fans want to be saddled down with Luongo’s huge contract for the next several years? Luongo or Vokoun wouldn’t make a difference on the Panthers, I am starting to think it is the coaching that needs changing.

pbubba – The team would have been best off had Keenan not given Luongo away. They should have had far better assets than just Matthias (who actually came for Bertuzzi) and Allen. In terms of the long term cost of keeping Luongo, it wouldn’t have been that much more than what they pay Vokoun. And no, without some other talent (and better coaching) it wouldn’t have mattered as both of those guys are great goalies. Luongo actually wanted to stay but he couldn’t get Keenan to agree to issue a statement that he wouldn’t trade him in that one year before a no-trade clause would go into effect. And take note that in the same CBC poll Keenan was ranked about 4th as a coach that players would least like to play for – and the guy isn’t even an active coach, which tells you how much he is disliked!

The Panthers claimed they would take the people with the best training camps and put them on the team. They stuck to their word.

Grabner did not have a good camp and he was cut. I think with Tallon at the helm for the first time, he was sending a message to the team that his word (and Pete’s) were to be taken at face value and they did not deviate. I also questioned the rigidity of this strategy, but I understand and respect what they did, even if I didn’t agree.

Hyman is impressive but is committed to Princeton so we won’t see him here for a while even if he does tear it up. I’m following him closely as he is a relative of a very close friend, so keep an eye out for this possible “steal of the draft.”

There is no way to sugarcoat this one. Tallon screwed the pooch on Grabner. I wouldn’t be surprised if Grabner tanked his Panther camp so he wouldn’t have to play for this joke of a franchse. NO ONE wants to play for Florida. This is hockey purgatory down here. Any NHL player that gets sent to Florida knows they either.

A) suck and don’t belong in the NHL
B) are close to retirement and need an easy send-off
C) have no other options except Europe or the KHL
D) need to prove their worth or find a way to get out of here (ie. Grabner)

The only reason guys like Weiss, Booth, and Vokoun have stuck around is because they get to rule the roost down here with top line minutes while pulling in very generous salaries. These are perks they probably would have never gotten elsewhere.

I am not so sure they stuck to their word. Olesz had a crappy training camp, and Stillman, Reinprecht and Dvorak weren’t much better. None of them did anything of any note in the preseason games. Grabner can outskate all of them (even Dvorak) and yet a team that was going to be built on speed didn’t want him. I would have put Olesz and his overblown contract, plus Reinprecht, on waivers right away. That would have given them a chance to rid themselves of Reinprecht earlier and if no one claimed Olesz then send him down to the minors where a fire might have been lit under his backside.

I honestly believe that if Ovechkin were a Panther, he’d be relegated to the 3rd or 4th line and he’d be nothing more than a 20 goal scorer. Or even take a kid like Derek Stepan with the Rangers. Do you think the Panthers would give him the 18 minutes a game that Tortorella gives him, or the pairing on a top line – all of which has contrbuted to this 20 year old racking up 14 goales and 16 assists so far.

Wait-A-Minute, you are exactly right. It is the teams that let their talented kids play that do better in the long run. Look at the how the Aves rejuvinated themselves last season when everyone expected them to be cellar dwellers in the standings. They may not be a powerhouse, but they are developing their youth add a torrid pace.

Meanwhile, Florida keeps messing around with guys like Olesz who should have been jettisoned three seasons ago. Why this guy is still on our roster is amazing to me. The same with Reinprecht, Stillman, and all these old goats who know Florida won’t make playoffs and who don’t care because they either have a Stanley Cup ring already or they just want to ease themselves in retirement on a forgiving and undemanding club.

You are absolutely correct. If Florida had a Stamkos or an Ovechkin (which they don’t because they are morons), these guys would either be out of here already or they would be stuck playing on 2nd, 3rd, or 4th lines with linemates who suck and don’t evne belong in the NHL.

Florida doesn’t know how to find talent.
They don’t know to identify talent.
They don’t know how to develop talent.
They don’t know how to keep talent.
And worst of all, they don’t know how to get trade value when talent wants to go out the door (something that happens often down here).

“If Florida had a Stamkos or an Ovechkin (which they don’t because they are morons),”

Totally agree with you here, Stamkos or Ovechkin would never be a Panther because every year they take a defenseman. This year they take Erik Gudbranson, while Skinner goes later and plays in the All-Star game. We heard all the hype about Bouwmeester and they let Nash go dropping down. Every time a Panthers management or coach says,”Defense wins,” ask them to show you what they have won with the defense? Offense wins games.

It seems to me (though I did not watch preseason) that Grabner didn’t want to be in SOFLA…he, along with his scoring prowess and speed, tanked it big-time…the Islanders, predictably, swooped in and “grabbed” him. On the flip side, look at Santorelli… a cast-off from Nashville, he’s performed admirably. To me…it’s a wash. Tallon probably saw Nathan Horton-like attitude/effort from Grabner … and decisively showed him the door. Kudos. We need more of that!

So what you are saying is that talented/skill type players don’t want to be in Florida, and only gritty overachievers want to be here. And that is exactly the point – and the problem. Yes, Santorelli has performed admirably. So has Reasoner. But you don’t build a playoff roster with only role/character guys. You have to have talent and skill. Even now Dadonov gets shuffled regularly to the end of the bench and also sitting throughout entire power plays despite being one of the most skilled players and possessing one of the best shots. Big deal that he makes rookie mistakes. This team isn’t going anywhere. Let a kid like him play and learn from in-game situations.

One of Tallon’s key goals this year was to effect a change in the team’s culture. I like Tallon and I’m glad he’s here, but I have to say that so far this is one area where he hasn’t changed anything. Until this organization starts to welcome and reward talent/skill, they will continue to find the more skilled players in the league shunning them as free agents and the skill guys they trade for will want to leave as soon as possible.

You nailed it dead on Wait-A-Minute. This team continually tries to get by with a roster full of role players hoping some kind magical chemistry will emerge like in 1996. That’s a pipe dream and that’s why they called that 1996 season a “Cinderella Season”. The reality is that Florida has a serious talent void and lunchbox players are not going to cut it. No one on their roster is capable of even averaging 1/2 a point per game and it shows in the standings and the meltdowns when the Panthers franctically try to hold on to fragile leads. In many ways, I almost think that opposition teams play rope-a-dope with Florida by allowing them to build a thin lead and then quickly giving them a KO punch in the 3rd period or OT when they are already tired and unable to counterattack on the rush. This would make sense from a strategy standpoint because it has worked repeatedly for multiple different opposing teams. Even teams that aren’t elite are quickly able to dismantle Florida which indicates some serious problems. Evern the worst teams win a game now and then, but Florida’s record (when removing OT games) is ridiculously atrocious.

Sorry guys but I repeat: Grabner was the worst player on the ice in practice, training camp and preseason games. Tallon needed to send a message that talent or not, the effort better always be there and this kid coasted. Remember, he’s scoring these goals on the Islanders. And I agree with some of your posts – how about Santorelli?

I take no sides on Grabner, it is a huge miss, for sure. Still I was paying attention to everything Tallon was saying before the season: he said we need a player that WANTS to help us. So can someone prove here that GRABNER WANTED TO HELP US and we didn’t let him?

If that’s the case Harvey, why not try and trade him for something or package him with someone else on the roster? Or better yet, why even bother trading for him at all? Did Florida scouts ever bother interviewing him or his agent to find out if he wanted to play down here? Losing him for nothing doesn’t seem so smart when Florida had to give up key assests to acquire him. This team reminds me of a day trader who buys stocks all day and keeps selling them at a loss while tooting their horn over one measily tiny proft. While each trade is not a huge loss, eventually these losses add up to show a history of bad trades and losses. That’s what we see today with this roster.

So you guys would have kept Grabner even though he was the worst player in camp …..right, You’re playing the result and not the reality. He was a throw in in a large trade. Vancouver got rid of him for a reason. In stints there he didn’t produce and had a very very bad attitude. All the Panthers were doing was trying to send him to the minors. The Islanders got lucky and claimed him. Grabner should have been sent to the minor for his performance. You guys seem to not know hockey, read your posts. Full of crap.

Actually you have that dead wrong. Bernier was the throw-in and Grabner was the plum. Grabner had 5 goals and 6 assists in the 20 games he played last year with Vancouver when they brought him up from the AHL. They didn’t get rid of him because he didn’t produce. They traded him because they wanted Ballard. And after playing in 20 games during the regular season, Grabner played in 9 playoff games, scoring a goal and registering a plus 2 rating (and also had 14 shots on goal).

I do applaud Tallon for wanting to set a new tone. But you have to wonder why nearly every young player this organization dumps goes on to have much greater success elsewhere.

One more thing – go to http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/allstar/poll/ and check out the player poll conducted by the CBC. The Panthers are ranked the 4th least favorite franchise among players and the ice at the BAC is ranked the worst in the league. In contrast, Vancouver was ranked the second favorite franshise to play for.

I still remember when the Leafs dealt Chad Kilger to the Florida Panthers for a third round draft pick in 2008 and he never reported to the Panthers. He probably heard he was traded to Florida and said “Say what???”. Rumor has it he chose early retirement rather than to play for Florida. I’m sure that’s not the first time players have been freaked out over being traded to Florida. I’m sure that’s what the “no trade clause” was invented for so when teams want to trade their players to Florida the player can say HELL NO!

Harvey, there is a third Grabner scenario. To understand actions in the past I’m looking at the turn of events in present. In most cases the clue is obvious.
Q: Who benefited from a Grabner demotion and why. Answer: Santoreli.
Q. Who got Santorelli from Nashville and got an important decision making position as an assist GM? May take is that PDB is confused like hell not knowing who’s the boss….

Nah. Tallon is the boss but Santos definitely has aspirations to be the main man someday. Santos handles most of the money matters and a lot of the trade calls. But Tallon is the one with the final say. And I agree. Panthers were trying to send Grabner to Rochester but Isles claimed him. Youre 100 pct right, Santorelli has benefitted by his absence.

WAM, that also explains Repik and Dadonov starting in AHL and the bad lines and ice time given to them , #18 on the 4th line vs Santorelli straight into PP . can’t do no wrong…Torrey must straighten things out.

I know it’s difficult to accept the current Panther quagmire…kinda reminds me of a certain football team in town… but I, for one, feel good about what Dale Tallon envisions. After all, the Hawks were in the same place as the Panthers…and look what happened there. Great drafting. Tallon possibly already brought in our Toews, Kane and Keith by drafting Howden, Gudbranson and Bjugstad. Think about it. The glass is half full, folks, IMO. Have some faith. Y’all didn’t think we were going anywhere this yr. based on the current roster, did you?

A few other notes: yes: we have lost some good talent only to get minimal comp in return. Luongo comes to mind. But look at Calgary: 2 yrs after mortgaging the farm on Bouwmeester…they are serious underachievers…(led by Uncle Jay…his Stats are paltry) and Sutter was shown the door. Although he started the season well, Nathan Horton is making himself a new home in Claude Julien’s doghouse. Good luck to him in getting out. Who else comes to mind: Niclas Hagman…Kristian Huselius…Olli Jokinen. No superstars there. Yes–bad trades have hurt the Cats. Can’t argue that point.

As for a firesale… I think a few moves will be made. I expect Olesz to be moved or released. McCabe, I think, will be traded. Bernier has been disappointing..I think he goes, too.

By the way Markstrom is starting to improve in Rochester winning the last 4 and getting 1st star in 2 of those games.His save % was .950 in those games so maybe there will be a light at the end of the tunnel for us in 2 years.I really dont care for DeBoer but I do like the picks Tallon has made in the last draft.In retrospect Grabner was a mistake but I think he was another Horton in desire.Good riddins.Bouwmeister looked better than he actually was because he was playing for the Cats.

Kilger didn’t come here because he got caught cheating on his wife with one of the leafs Massage Therapists. And trying to save his marriage he stayed home and groveled.

RED BARON says:
January 31, 2011 at 5:40 am
I still remember when the Leafs dealt Chad Kilger to the Florida Panthers for a third round draft pick in 2008 and he never reported to the Panthers. He probably heard he was traded to Florida and said “Say what???”. Rumor has it he chose early retirement rather than to play for Florida. I’m sure that’s not the first time players have been freaked out over being traded to Florida. I’m sure that’s what the “no trade clause” was invented for so when teams want to trade their players to Florida the player can say HELL NO!

You can say Grabner had a terrible pre-season, Harvey, but I have a story to tell. It is of wonder and fantasy. It is about… Anthony Stewart. A few years ago he was lighting it up in the pre-season. Remember? We all thought this was the year. He’s going to do it; become an NHLer. We knew there was a reason we drafted him… and dud. Grabner deserved to at least be up here for a few games before we cast him aside. God I hope we get rid of the crap on this roster. However, look at Stewart now.. 12G 16A… 28 points. He has so far out performed: David Booth, Frolik, Stillman, Olesz, Higgins, Dvorak.. I can go on. Point is, forget Grabners bad pre-season. He tanked on purpose because he has a lot to offer a team. Look at how he is playing with the Islanders, who are doing worse than us. Imagine him on a second line with Booth on the opposite side and Santorelli at center. Tallon screwed this one up big time.

“Tallon screwed this one up big time.”
No argument there. He is going to get some wrong, but then he may be listening to DeBoer’s evaluation and maybe the guy responsible is DeBoer for unvaluing Grabner. They tell the fans they will build a team on speed and then they cut the fastest player in the league. Better to send Olesz down to Rochester, less chance a team takes him off waivers because of his salary and he helps Rochester while giving Grabner a chance to start in NHL then after a month send him down if he still is not good enough.

Time for Tallon to evaluate DeBoer, if he can’t get this team to make the playoffs, maybe the team needs a fresh start next year with a new coach. If a lot of the players are underperforming, maybe it is the coaching staff that needs to be sent down. DeBoer may have been a great junior coach but many great junior coaches stink in the NHL, Cory Clouston & Craig Hartsburg come to mind of very good junior coaches who could not translate their junior coaching success to the NHL.

I’m on the fence regarding DeBoer. There are many things he has done that I like, most notably making a big change from the way Martin had them playing – they play a far more aggressive style now. But I’ve questioned his use of personnel and the way he hands out minutes.

Having said that, if you go back to last summer around the time of Ballard’s trade, there were stories in the media, notably in Vancouver in the Province newspaper, that cited unnamed Panthers players as saying that DeBoer was not popular with the players due partly to his treating them as if they were Juniors and not NHL players. Booth and a few others leapt to DeBoer’s defense and Ballard came right out and said he never made those comments. Of course there is the strong likelihood that some of those players who complained are among the deadwood who contribute so little to the team and simply don’t like being disciplined. But I do think DeBoer sometimes cuts way too much slack to some of the deadwood vets and not enough to some of the young kids.

Red, they thought he’d clear waivers and stew in Rochester until he decided to give a damn. But Isles scooped him up.

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About the author

HARVEY FIALKOV, a tennis-playing sportswriter who grew up in Long Island following the dynastic Islanders, is the new Panthers beat writer for the Sun Sentinel and looking forward to writing about the best professional sports team in Broward County.